Starting therapy: How much time do you have?
Engaging with a therapist is going to take up your time and unless you are offered free sessions will cost you a sum of money so it probably makes sense to check that you are clear about the amount of time you have before you start.
Whilst I can’t cover specific reason for starting, I don’t know you and your personal experience; I can pose some questions, through this series of posts that you might want to consider.
As a good a starting point as any that I can think of is to consider this question “What is my relationship with myself like, how does that affect my relationships with those that are closest to me and how I am seen by the outside world?
The work that takes place in a therapists consulting room is about you and the therapists role in this relationship is to support you whilst you explore you issues around how you relate to you and present yourself in the world.
You may find that your therapists questions or challenges what you have said or done whilst you are in a session or points out that your position on a particular issues has changed since this was mentioned. It’s part of the process and in many ways this is the role of your therapist. To reflect on what is happen between the two of you and report back anything that has changed or is inconsistent.
At times this can be a provoking process, bringing with it many different emotions and thoughts. Whilst it seems sensible to say that a session may only last 50 minutes, the thoughts and emotions that may come up will take longer to process.
Balancing the time for sessions and the work that you do in-between them is an important part of a therapeutic process. Making time and space to find a good work life balance is difficult enough, adding in the time to process and work on you will mean extra time and effort.
The return for your investment in time and money may well be a clearer understanding of you and a changed relationship with the outside world.
